Tools
Some utilities to help you managing your hardware. Some are self-written by the authors, some are linked to the web.
DEC Flip-Chip Extender
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Tools
Why extenders?
When repairing computer circuit boards, you must measure their signals.
To measure their signals, you must add some signal clips.
To add signal clips, the boards must be operated outside the card cages.
That's why you can not repair DEC PDPs without so called "Extenders".
These come in several widths, identified by the number of 2*18 pin flip chip sockets they provide: "single-slot", "dual-width", "quad-width" and "hex-width". They have regulary DEC module numbers, for example: the quad-width is W987A, the dual-width is W984A. For dimensions see attached PDF.
Extenders even can be cascaded ... usually not a good idea!
Where to get them?
Extenders are rare, as nobody gives them away.
But there is at least one company which is still selling them: douglas.com
DIY
Here is a project to build extenders on yourself. Extenders consist of the circuit board and Flip-Chip sockets soldered to them.
PCBs
Attached below are Gerber files for single, dual, quad and hex-width circuit boards, each in standard DEC form factor, and in a "+5" variant, elongated by 5 cm.
You can view Gerber files with https://www.gerber-viewer.com/
These chinese board makers can produce at reasonable prices. For example, for a batch from jlcpcb.com we had in january 2020 (including shipment to Germany and taxes): Single = 8€, dual = 8.50€, quad = 15€, hex = 24€.
OK, we had quite a volume:
The "+5" variants let the sockets look above neighbor cards. This allows to attach clips to the socket wires.
Or you solder on rotated sockets, like in this strange PDP-10? extender:
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Flip-Chip connector sockets
These black DEC connector blocks are also rare. Note "rare" like in eBay advertisements, but really really rare.
Some of us guys harvested them from dead backplanes. Steps are
- unwind all the wire-wrap from their pins (very boring)
- cut the PCB with sockets into handy pieces
- unsolder socket pins and remove sockets from PCB.
The latter may be easy or impossible, depending on the backplane maker style.
Some 3rd party backplane consist of separate sockets.
DEC backplanes use sockets in quad or niner-packs.
These can only be separated by sawing through the blocks. I successfully used a tile-cutter with diamond blade, as the socket bodies seem to consist of Bakelite, which behaves quite mineralic.
Unsoldering from DEC backplanes once was not too difficult, as PCB holes have some air around.
On some other DATARAM backplane we found the pins to be pressed into the PCB ... no chance here!
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There's also a company named "ECS" which sells single-width connectors, see attached datasheet.
We got an offer of about $9 / piece in a quantity of 300.
So you have $56 for a hex extender, and have to find lot of other interested people, not to mention the effort to manage distribution ... lets see if this ever happens!
2418-13-30.pdf -- ECS flip chip socket dimensions
flipchip-dimensions.pdf -- DEC board dimensions
2400-Series125-X-150-Contact-Spacing.pdf -- ECS flip chip socket datasheet
DEC G9047 QBUS Grant and voltage monitor
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Tools
Enhancing a G9047 QBUS GRANT continuity card
In analogy to the UNIBUS grant and voltage monitor G7273diag I designed a special QBUS GRANT Continuity G9047 card with some diagnostic features. Lets call it "G9047diag".
When setting up an QBUS PDP-11, you typically have to deal with two topics first:
- is power good?
- is the GRANT chain closed?
G9047diag adds some comfort here with minimal effort.
GRANT Continuity
QBUS backplanes - like UNIBUS - route the Interrupt GRANT "IAK" signal and the DMA GRANT "DMG" in a special way:
IAK and DMG must be bridged on empty slots, connecting IN and OUT signals.
The typical solution is not to leave empty slots between cards, but to arrange all card nearest to the CPU. If you have holes in backplane usage, you must fill them with the G9047 QBUS GRANT continuity card. This card just connects IAKI to IAKO and DMGI to DMGO
In practice, handling of QBUS systems is much easier then UNIBUS: QBUS system typically do not span multiple backplanes, there are much fewer slot types, there's only one Interrupt GRANT IAK for the four IRQ4..7, and the DMA GRANT signal DMG is not hidden on the backplane backside, as its UNIBUS counterpart NPG.
Nonetheless: as on UNIBUS, it may be a challenge to close the GRANT chain. In QBUS systems there only standardized slots, I don't know of any device-specific special backplane. But "standard" means: many QBUS varieties. In every A/B row there's QBUS, but we have 18bit and 22bit QBUS, or 18bit wired to 22bit manually. C/D rows are used as standard QBUS slots too, or are bussed together for custom applications, or partly prewired for special local CPU memory extension. Another speciality are the "zig-zag" backplanes like H9276 with counter-intuitive QBUS slot ordering. And then there are the microVAXes.
See this excellent site for more info.
The G9047 diagnostic card
This "G9047diag" card is just a simple clone of DECs G9047. The INTR grant "IAK" IN and OUT signals as well as the DMA grant "DMG" IN and OUT are routed to the upper card edge onto pin headers. Also the mandatory +5V, +12V, as well as optional -12V and battery voltages are exposed.
So you can easily
- verify whether DMGI/O and/or IAKI/O are closed between two slots by inserting two G9047 and beeping the signals between them.
- verify supply voltages with a voltmeter.
Voltage eye candy
With help of these little chinese volt meters, you can convert G9047diag into a permanent voltage monitor.
See it here plugged into an 11/23 card cage with H9276 backplane. H9276 has QBUS only in A/B and special CD in all rows, so no G9047 in the C/D area here.
In DEC QBUS systems, only TWO DVMs for +5V and +12V are used. DEC cards that need other voltages generate them locally. However the QBUS standard defines many more voltages,
-12V and some battery backups. G9047 has sodler points for all these, so you can decide on yourself which voltage to display on the 3rd DVM.
DVMs
These tiny Digital Volt Meters are small enough to fit into the space reserved for standard DEC card handles. Key element is a 3D print:
Build your own
To reproduce the G9047diag with volt meters, you need 3 components.
The printed circuit board (PCB) can be made by sending the attached Gerber file to one of these cheap chinese makers. I used jlcpcb.com. Don't forget to select "gold fingers / ENIG".
The 3D printed handle is generated from the attached "stl" file.
The volt meters are eBay stuff. My ones were labled "3-Wires Mini DC 0-100V Voltmeter LED Panel 3-Digital Display Voltage Meter UE". The connection is in fact 2-wire, connect "yellow" to "red".
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DEC KM11
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Tools
The DEC "KM11" is a diagnostic tool for older DEC PDP-11 CPUs and some peripheral devices.
It's a passive maintenance panel with just 4*7 lamps and 4 switches, which can be plugged into special slots on the host device.
There's no own "KM11" manual, it's use and schematics are part of the device to be debugged.
The best overall description would be at gunkies.org .
KM11 is invaluable in repair, very scarce, but easy to build. So some people reproduced it, I throw in mine project here.
Main use so far was microstepping 11/40 and 11/05 CPUs.
Especially for that I added pinheaders, so the micro program counter on display can also be monitored with a logic analyzer. And the one "momentary action" switch for generating "micro-step" pulses can be disabled, so pulses can be injected via a variable highspeed square-wave generator.
Attached you find the PCB Gerber files, a 3D print STL for the light template, and paper overlay for 11/40 and 11/05 CPUs.
gerber.zip -- Gerber files to produce KM11 PCB
km11.stl -- 3D print for KM11 light mask
km11-1105.pdf -- KM11 labels for 11/05 CPU
G7273 Diagnostic
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Tools
Enhancing a G7273 UNIBUS GRANT continuity card
Much too late I designed a special GRANT Continuity G7273 card with some diagnostic features. Lets call it "G7273diag".
When setting up an old UNIBUS PDP-11, you typically have to deal with two topics first:
- is power good?
- is the GRANT chain closed?
G7273diag adds some comfort here with minimal effort.
SPC slot GRANT Continuity
General purpose UNIBUS backplanes with SPC slots route Interrupt GRANT (BG4,5,6,7) and DMA GRANT (NPG) in a special way:
All five BG* and NPG must be bridged on empty slots, connecting IN and OUT signals.
On the typical quad SPC slot in a hex socket the four BG* are forwarded by plugging in a little G727 GRANT continuity card into the "D"-row.
NPG is forwarded by setting a wire-wrap on the backplane pin side in "C"-row, between pins A1 and B1. I've written about it earlier.
Verifying and setting the BR* forward is simple: if the the SPC slot is empty, the BR* chain is open.
To close it, insert one of these little G727 card (OK, you may loose some blood and skin).
In contrast, working with the NPG chain is incredible difficult:
Neither its easy to find the correct backplane pins, nor can you easily access the slot contacts from the card side.
Thats why DEC complemented the G727 with the G7273 continuity card: it has full size, and closes BG* and NPG simultaneously.
Compared to G727 the G7273 is quite rare.
While its now easy to close NPG with an G7273 in empty slots, you still must be able to detect the open/close status of those hidden pin-side NPG jumpers.
- There are SOME cards (namely the omnipresent serial DL11-W M7856), which neither use nor close NPG. These cards can only be plugged into slots with closed NPG jumper.
- On the other side, controllers doing DMA (all non-trivial ones, including UniBone) must be plugged into slots with OPEN NPG jumper.
So the first thing you do on every SPC backplane is: mark for each slot whether NPG is open or closed.
The G7273 diagnostic card
This "G7273diag" card is just a simple clone of DECs G7273. The BG4, BG5, BG6, BG7 signals as well as NPGIN and NPGOUT are routed to the upper card edge onto pin headers. Also the SPC slot voltages GND, +5V, +15V and -15V are exposed. 
So you can easily
- verify whether NPG is closed by beeping NPGIN and NPGOUT
- close the NPG chain by setting a jumper between NPGIN and NPGOUT
- verify whether BG* and/or NPG are closed between two slots by inserting two G7372 and beeping the signals between them.
- verify supply voltages with a voltmeter.
Voltage eye candy
With help of these little chinese volt meters, you can convert G7273diag into a permanent voltage monitor.
See it here plugged into an 11/34 between serial DL11-W and a memory card, surrounded by more G7273diags:
These tiny volt meters are small enough to fit into the space reserved for standard DEC card handles. Key element is a 3D print:
Build your own
To reproduce the G7273diag with volt meters, you need 3 components.
The printed circuit board (PCB) can be made by sending the attached Gerber file to one of these cheap chinese makers. I used jlcpcb.com. Don't forget to select "gold fingers / ENIG".
The 3D printed handle is generated from the attached "stl" file.
The volt meters are eBay stuff. My ones were labled "3-Wires Mini DC 0-100V Voltmeter LED Panel 3-Digital Display Voltage Meter UE". The connection is in fact 2-wire, connect "yellow" to "red".
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PDP11MONLOADER - code download into PDP-11's over serial monitor
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Tools
Code download?
Most PDP-11's have a serial console monitor. This is a simple line based user interface which allows to write, read and execute code.
This is important
- if you need to boot device which the Boot ROM is missing. Then you have to enter the boot loader code over monitor.
- if you want to run diagnostics, and have no working disk or tape devices yet.
pdp11monloader
Many many people have written auxillary programs to automate code download. Here comes my contribution: "pdp11monloader".
It is a command line program, written in C for Linux platforms. On MS-Windows it can be compiled for CYGWIN.
Main features:
- serial port, baudrate and data format settable
- can work with QBUS-PDP-11's (ODT monitor) and with UNIBUS machines (M9312 / M9301 console emulator).
- can load code from MACRO-11 listing files, standard paper tape images and plain textfiles with octal <address> - <value> pairs in each line.
- can start execution of downloaded code
- can stay in primitive tty-like terminal emulator to let you immediately work with the running code.
Links
Download here: https://github.com/j-hoppe/pdp11monloader. The "demo_files" contains some example code formats.
More info by built in help: https://github.com/j-hoppe/pdp11monloader/blob/master/README.md
Subcategories
PDP11GUI
PDP11GUI is an integrated development environment (IDE) for PDP-11’s, running under MS Windows.
You can write programms in assembler and load them onto the PDP-11, run programs or single step them, disassemble code, load, dump and display memory and inspect registers.
You can use it in conjunction with SimH to learn about PDP-11’s, or you can attach it to a real PDP-11 as an handy hardware investigation and diagnostic tool.
First I’ve written PDP11GUI for some diagnostic tasks on my 11/44, then it developed its own momentum and kept me busy for nearly a year. And it’s still growing.
PDP11GUI is distributed as a self-installer at GitGub .
Before installation, backup all files you eventually modified!
Then proceed through installation instructions and the tutorial.
SimH with telnet console access
A modification of SimH to access it's command prompt over telnet.
MACRO11 cross assembler
PDP-11 Diagnostic Database
DEC made diagnostic procedures for all of their hardware, here we concentrate on the PDP-11 universe.
Many of these diagnostics are on the web today, but widely scattered around.
They have several designations, come on several media, are made for different devices, run under several supervisor monitors and are separated from their documentiation.
So here is a try to pull all pieces together and order them into one system:
The PDP-11 Diagnostics Database
TU58FS - file sharing with a DECtape II emulator
This is a tool to share files between a DEC PDP-11 and a modern computer.
The software emulates an TU58 DECtape II, which is controlled by the PDP over serial RS232 line.
The "tape content" appears as plain files in a shared directory, and can be accessed on both sides. So you can easily exchange files between PDP-11 and your host, just by copying to and from the shared directory, even per drag'n drop.
XXDP and RT-11 filesystem are implemented.
Requirements on PDP-11 side are minimal: only a 2nd serial port is needed. Not even TU58 "DD" Boot ROMs are necessary, as tu58fs contains an option to download a boot loader over ODT and M9312 console.
There is full support for "oversized" TU58 tapes: a TU58 tape image can hold up to 32MB, breaking the 256KB barrier.
This allows to run the full XXDP diagnostic file set over a single RS232 connection. No need to create special XXDP cartridges, or to wear your RL02 drive while reparing & testing.
Or you can run a full RT-11 distribution to a host directory, modify sources with your host editor and compile on your PDP-11 simultaneously.
UniProbe - an UNIBUS signal adapter
When repairing DEC PDP-11s there's always the need to see whats happening on the main system bus. On older 11s this is the UNIBUS.
After several try-and-error cycles, I think I now have the perfect signal adapter for UNIBUS ... calling it "UniProbe". In KiCAD 3D rendering it looks like this:
UniProbe has these features:
- can be built to plug into Standard UNIBUS or Modified UNIBUS slots.
- can be built to be a PDP-11/34 M9302 or a simple M930 terminator.
- LEDs for all 56 UNIBUS signals on the card edge.
- Logic analyzer probe plugs and a patch board area for measuring the signals.
Read on!
QProbe - a QBUS signal adapter
When repairing DEC PDP-11s there's always the need to see whats happening on the main system bus. On newer 11s this is the QBUS.
So after UniProbe, I also designed a "QProbe".
The card has these features:
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it acts optionally as bus terminator via changeable resistor packs.
- it visualizes the QBUS signals.
- Two display modes:
a) ADDR and DATA are demultiplexed, INTR and DMA pulses are elongated to be visible.
b) "passthrough": LEDs just show state of bus lines. - Pin headers provide access to signals via logic analyzer (LA) or multimeter.
- Patch field to connect LA probes to QBUS signals in a clean way. LA ports with changeable impedance-matching resistor packs.
- LED drivers and demultiplexer logic realized with two EPM240T100 CPLDs. These can be programmed with own logic via an onboard JTAG header and Intel QUARTUS tool.
Read on!
TTY2PI - Adapter for ASR-33 Teletype
The "ASR-33 Teletype" is surely an eye catcher, but difficult to manage because of its 20mA interface.
"TTY2PI" is a project to access the ASR-33 over RS232 port, and/or connect it to a Raspberry Pi Zero W, which forwards data flow over WLAN or other ports.
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uTracer11 - a GUI for micro stepping a PDP-11
„uTracer11“ (read: "micro-tracer") is a signal probe that is plugged into older UNIBUS PDP-11s.
The CPU state is visualized on a host PC.
It is primarily used for micro-tracing the CPU, as a function demo or repair tool.